Certain conventional gas turbine engine fan blades and cooler operating compressor blades and dovetails or roots are manufactured from metal and are carried by a slot in a metal support member such as a rotor or a stationary casing. During operation, under high compressive loads and relative movement between the root and a wall of the slot, wear and fretting erosion have been observed, particularly with blade roots carried by a rotating member. Development of the gas turbine engine has resulted in replacement of certain metal blades with composite blades made of stacked or layed-up plies of a reinforced polymeric material, for example an epoxy matrix reinforced with a fiber structure such graphite, glass, boron, etc, as is well known in the art. Some of such blades are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,752,600--Walsh et al, patented Aug. 14, 1973; 4,040,770--Carlson, patented Aug. 9, 1977; and 5,292,231--Lauzeille, patented Mar. 8, 1994. The disclosures of each of these patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Generally, in such known structures, it has been common practice to dispose metal outserts or metal shells between the blade root and the dovetail slot of the carrying member, in the splayed design conveniently used in such assemblies. The contact between the metal slot of the carrying member and the metal outsert or shell at the juncture between the blade and the slot has resulted in wear and fretting erosion at that interface.